Pages

Saturday options

20 JULY 2013

I think today, Friday, was officially the heavyweight day of the Con. Everyone seemed to be talking about Hall H and everyone seemed headed off to a party tonight. So what's on deck for tomorrow?Hall H has Warner Brothers (Godzilla, Rise of an Empire, 7th Son, Gravity, LEGO Movie) at 10:45, Lionsgate (I, Frankenstein, Hunger games) at 1:35, EW's Women Who Kick Ass at 2:55, 20th Century Fox at 4:15, Thor/Captain America at 6, and Kevin Smith at 7:15. A good day, by all means, but the morning crowd will be different from the evening one. In other words, I don't think you need to camp to see Kevin Smith.Ballroom 20 should be packing them in and not just for True Blood. Once Upon A Time in Wonderland is at 10:15; Once Upon a Time Neverland at 11; Futurama at 12, The Simpsons at 12:45, Family Guy at 1:45, American Dad at 2:30 and then an abrupt shift to True Blood at 3:30, Vampire Diaries at 4:30 and Arrrow at 5:15. Hopefully that shift means a lot people clear out and let a large batch in for the later panels.The Indigo Ballroom has Machinima at 10, Geek and Sundry at 11, How I Met Your Mother at 12, The Originals at 1, The Awesomes at 2, Nerdist Industries at 3, Being Human at 4:00, followed by Warehouse 13 at. 5:00 and Cosmos: A Space Time Odyssey at 6. Kind of a mixed bag, there.

Neil Gaiman is in 6DE at 3:15 to share the secrets of his Sandman miniseries. Also attending: Dave McKean,Sam Kieth,Todd Klein, andJ. H. Williams III. Quite a line for this one, I'm sure. And if you can't get into it, then check out the fall and winter preview from Fantagraphics and Drawn and Quarterly at 3:30 in 26AB.

The LGBTQ faction of Comic-Con has really come into its own these last few years, and today should be an especially rainbow-hued day: the stars of Prism are celebrating its 10 anniversary in 28DE at 1, and the Gays and Comics panel is in 6A at 5:30, followed by the Gay Comics Fan Mixer in the same room at 7.

Star Wars Vs. Serenity is in 24ABC at 1:30. Probably a strong nostalgic factor for this one.

If you wanted to see some TV panels, but didn't want to deal with Hall H or Ballroom 20, Person in Interest is in 6BCF at 4, followed by Revolution at 4:50.

The 75th Anniversary of Superman panel is in room 6A at 4:15.

You can catch The Tomorrow People pilot in 6BCF at 5:55.Also - final reminder on the Blood Drive. You can make an appointment up in the Sails Pavilion by the freebie table or you can just wander on over to the Omni, take the escalator up to the ballroom and give blood. You will get snacks and a swag bag with a magnificent red True Blood t-shirt, AND you'll get entered into a drawing to attend the Saturday night, super-swank invite-only True Blood party.

As for your other Saturday night options:

Stripped: the Comics Documentary panel is at 7:00 in 28DE; the CBLDF Live Art Auction is in the Sapphire Ballroom at the Hilton at 7:30; The Star Wars Trivia Game show is at 8:00 in 23ABC; the Masquerade is at 8:30 in Ballroom 20 with overflow viewing in other rooms; Rocky Horror Picture Show is playing at the film festival at 11:30.

4 comments:

Some parties are 21+. Others aren't. Just Google the ones you want to go to. If it's not in a club, usually anyone over 18 can go, although you might have to wear one of those underage bracelets.

As for getting invited - if you're trying to get into A-list parties, this is a matter of having the right connections. If you don't know the right people, these parties are usually hard to get into. I've always been able to walk into most of them (and accidentally walked into one tonight without even wanting to) but a lot of that depends on how you present. If you're just looking to go to any of the random Gaslamp parties, those are full of Con attendees and anyone can go.

If you're looking for less publicized parties and events, ask around. The indie comic booths used to have fliers for these, but a lot of those indie artists can't afford booths anymore. A lot of the parties are hosted by and for specific factions, whether it's cosplayers, film people or gamers/devs - people invite only the people in their networks, so while they're theoretically open to anyone, they're hard to find out about. You have to ask a lot of people.

Go up to the front of the Convention Center, down by Lobby A, and ask the people in the "Ask Me" shirts. There's a little office down there on the end with some staff that can tell you what to do. Good luck.